Dayton 2 Vegas!

Poker Slam

2008-12-04T14:20:00.005-05:00

A few days ago I was contacted by Neal Gersony. He emailed Dayton2Vegas@yahoo.com and asked if I could review his new fictional book, Poker Slam. I agreed and he sent me a copy to my apartment and included a nice note of thanks. What a nice guy!

Neal Gersony has his own poker site, PokerSlamU.com, that offers instructional courses to help beginner and advanced players. He's cashed at the World Series of Poker and has earned over $225,000 in tournaments.

I'm excited to read and review Neal's book. All the reviews of Poker Slam that I've read online have been extremely positive. Check back to Dayton2Vegas.com soon for the full review!

Check out Poker Slam on Amazon today!

Black Friday Death

2008-12-01T01:28:00.002-05:00

Unbelievable.

A man who worked at Wal-Mart was killed this past weekend during "Black Friday" in New York. How sick is that? What kind of a world do we live in? The customers ran over the guy and sent four other people to the hospital, including a pregnant woman!

I hope no one will die on "Cyber Monday" as they now call today.

I pre-ordered two copies of The Dark Knight and managed to not injure anyone around me which is always nice. I hope everyone had a great and safe Thanksgiving!

Read the entire article here.

Top 20 SnG Player

2008-11-16T05:52:00.003-05:00

Okay, not in the world... yet.

However, I am ranked in the top 20 on SharkScope.com for total profit in 2008 at middle stakes SnGs (and I've only been playing since August)! Even though being the best at middle stakes is somewhat like being the tallest midget your town.

My goal for next year is to make over $100,000 playing $30 SnGs. I will be the #1 middle stakes SnG player in the world!

Peter Eastgate = 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion

2008-11-11T07:37:00.005-05:00

Peter Eastgate, 22, of Denmark is the new World Series of Poker Main Event Champion!

His first place prize exceeds over 9 million dollars! Eastgate becomes the youngest player ever to win the Main Event. Sorry Phil (he was 24)!

Check out all the hand updates and information at CardPlayer.com!

T.S. Eliot

2008-10-27T17:28:00.002-04:00

"For I have known them all already, known them all: Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons, I have measured out my life with coffee spoons; I know the voices dying with a dying fall. Beneath the music from a farther room. So how should I presume?" - T.S. Eliot

Keeneland

2008-10-27T01:39:00.003-04:00

Quick note:

I went to Keeneland in Lexington, KY with my brother and his law school classmates (two school buses full of them). It was an awesome new experience. No, Curlin wasn't there but the track was beautiful. Lastly, I want to throw in that I was 100% on my bets all day... 1 for 1. That's enough "gambling" for me in one weekend.

Thanks a lot to Gabrel for inviting me out with him for the weekend! =)

Anthony Holden Quote

2008-10-22T17:17:00.001-04:00

"The difference between a gambler and a poker player is a crucially simple one. A gambler, be he one who bets on horses or sports events, on casino games or rain drops running down window panes, is someone who wagers unfavorable odds. A poker player, if he knows what he's doing, is someone who wagers favorable odds. The one is romantic, the other a realist." -Anthony Holden

The Greatest Sports Movie of All-Time.

2008-10-21T13:32:00.009-04:00

Raging Bull (1980)

An emotionally self-destructive boxer's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring, destroys his life outside it.

The Money. The Girls. The Power.
He knew it all. He blew it all.

#3 on the American Film Institute's Top 100 Movies of All-Time
#73 on IMDb's Top 250 List
8 Oscar nominations - 2 wins (Best Actor - Robert De Niro)
7 Golden Globe nominations - 1 win (Best Actor - Robert De Niro)
98% = Rotten Tomatoes
-Directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Deniro and Joe Pesci.

Negreanu lays down KK pre-flop

2008-10-20T19:09:00.000-04:00

Read Daniel Negreanu's blog about his big laydown. Was it the correct play?

"Hand 2: After coming back from break I pick up KK with blinds at 200-400 with a 50 ante from under the gun. I make a pretty sloppy, nonchalant raise to 1000 and it's called by the same loose player. Matt Keikwon, a player I know and am friends with, re-raised the bet to 3700, 2700 more. He didn't have a ton of chips, so I decided to just go ahead and make my claim for the pot right there. I re-raised another 6000 investing 9700 into the pot at that point.The other guy folds and it's back to Matt. He goes all in for an additional 20,100 more. I kind of hoped to get re-raised and go all in with this hand, but my guy was telling me Matt had to have AA here. Problem is, the pot is laying me a sick price to call. There is already over 20,000 in there so I'm getting over 2 to 1 odds with a pretty good hand! Besides that, after winning previous pot I was in decent chip position. I agonized for ages and then finally dumped the KK. Matt, being a bit of a smart ass, showed me one card, the Ace. Considering I had two of the KK that pretty much confirmed for me that he had AA. I doubt that he would do that with AK, so lifetime, I've folded KK pre-flop twice and believe that I'm one for two. The last time I did it years ago at Boragata the guy showed me QQ! Uh oh."

*ESPN WSOP coverage tomorrow night from 9-11pm. Tune in for Hellmuth's explosion. Less than 100 players left! Don't miss it!

Michael Phelps - The Poker Player?

2008-10-19T15:00:00.000-04:00

Check out this extremely interesting interview Cardplayer ran with one of the greatest Olympic athletes ever. It turns out Phelps is a huge fan of the game. If you ran out of videos to watch on YouTube then check this article out. Phelps is two for four this year in making final tables! He just made a Final at a $1,500 buy-in event at the Bellagio out of a field of 187! How sick is that?

Cardplayer's Q & A with Michael Phelps.

My Poker Goal

2008-10-18T22:55:00.000-04:00

I'm going to make $100,000 playing poker online without ever betting more than $30.

I started this goal on August 21, 2008 on FullTilt. I'm currently at just over $7,000 profit after two months. I'm going to achieve this goal by playing zero cash games and zero MTTs. I'm going to only play $30 SnGs - 6 max.

Any doubters? There shouldn't be. I'll add a tracker to Dayton2Vegas.com soon so everyone can keep up on my goal!

PokerTube.com

2008-10-17T18:33:00.001-04:00

Quick post: check out PokerTube.com to watch EVERY televised poker event over the past three years. It's amazing site. More coming soon! =)

Trifecta of Taste

2008-10-16T16:46:00.000-04:00

This might be the most unimportant post I've ever made in my career as "blogger". That being said, I just wanted to officially say that I found the greatest combination of food a person can have in one day (for fast foods).

1. Breakfast = McDonald's
2. Lunch = Subway
3. Dinner = Chipotle

My brother Gabe also brought up a strong theory. The earlier in the day that you eat McDonald's, the better it is. This is what incredible fascinating things come from today's young lawyers. Haha - I agree with it so much. McDonald's late at night makes me feel terrible about my life, but if I eat it in the morning, I truly feel like there's nothing in the world I couldn't do. =)

Once again, I apologize for this post to my six loyal readers out there.

Hellmuth on ESPN tonight!

2008-10-07T15:57:00.002-04:00

Phil Hellmuth, Jr. takes the main stage tonight from 9-11pm on ESPN. I've watched the previews and it looks awesome! Finally, we get to see coverage of the Poker brat at the Main Event. There's only 470 players left at this point! You won't want to miss this tonight!

Folding Kings to Aces pre-flop!

2008-10-06T15:26:00.004-04:00

Check out this hand on the poker hand replayer!

Enough whining for the month, right? Check this hand out from FullTilt. I've folded Kings around 20 times pre-flop and every single time it was the correct play. This shows a few things. First that I'm sick. Secondly, that the person must have played Aces terribly for me to lay Kings down. The triple min-raise, etc.

My opponents forgot one thing about me... "I can dodge bullets, baby."

If I could go back in time...

2008-10-05T12:44:00.002-04:00

I was playing a show about a year and a half ago with my brother Gabe. We have a band, From Midnight On, and we had a weekly gig at a local bar, Walnut Hills. I don't remember the exact date but we always played on a Wednesday night from 10-midnight and beyond. On this particular night, I didn't want to play. I felt fine but I just didn't care. It was the same thing, the same music, and the same people.

I was bitchy all night. I remember my fiance motioning towards me while I was playing with one of those "stop being a shit/come on/be happy/what's wrong?/smile" looks. I didn't play my best and the worst part was that I didn't care.

In the crowd that night were the closest people to me. My friends Ryan Hines, Clay Brett, Adam Remillard, Luke Rodgers, Frenchy, Nate Woodard, George Ertle, an John Tokarz. My family was all there as well. My Mom, Dad, sister Erika and more. These people and a few more were my group, my friends, my family.. my life.

Not one person I listed above is here with me now. I haven't seen anyone on that list for over a month. In fact, not one person I mentioned even lives in Ohio anymore!

I'm trying not to whine too much and I don't want to turn Dayton2Vegas.com into a 14 year-old's Xanga. I don't have it rough. My life has been extremely easy compared to almost anyone I know, but things are definitely different now.

My brother Gabe was over a few days ago and we had an amazing time. He's my best friend. We talked about so many memories. It was a lot of fun. However, at every point in my life I've been able to say that one day I'd look back on it and miss it. I think this is the first time I can't say that and it hurts more than you could ever know.

Comedies with Heart

2008-10-03T19:20:00.000-04:00

I just got done watching Kingpin. It's not on my top 25 list nor will you find it on almost anyone's list of top/favorite movies. Still there's something about it and other Farrelly movies that I always seem to enjoy. I couldn't pin point it so I decided to watch the director's cut.

I found out what the difference is between their comedies and the rest of the comedic filmmakers around today. I can explain it in one word... HEART!

The Farrelly brothers talked about this concept a lot in the director's cut of Kingpin. Think back to their other movies like There's Something About Marry. The movie wouldn't work as well if the audience didn't care for Ben Stiller's character.

It's the same thing with Dumb and Dumber. One of the Farrelly brothers mentioned how when Jim Carrey's character "Loyd Christmas" sold a bird with its head cutoff to a blind kid to raise money for his trip to Aspen, it wouldn't have sat well with the audience if it wasn't for an earlier scene when he broke down saying how he's got nothing in life and crying on the shoulder of his only friend.

This pattern of making the audience really "feel" for the characters is present in all of their movies. They also believe it makes the jokes work. I agree because I can now see the difference between their movies and newer comedies like Dodgeball for example. Let's be serious, at least in my opinion, who really cared about Vince Vaughan's character or anybody from Average Joe's Gym? I think of how I felt when they won at the end and saved the gym. I didn't care at all. I just wanted to se more of Ben Stiller's wife in real life make out with more chicks. Now when I think about the ending to There's Something About Marry, I really wanted Ben Stiller to be with Cameron Diaz. That emotional attachment to the characters is the reason I enjoy Farrelly brothers movies so much.

Film Controversy

2008-10-01T16:51:00.001-04:00

Check out this list of the Top 10 Most Controversial Films!

Halloween is my Main Event

2008-09-29T12:19:00.007-04:00

The World Series of Poker Europe Main Event is going on right now! After Day 1, Daniel Negreanu has tons of chips and is in a good position to do very deep in the tourney. Read about Negreanu's Day 1.

Phil Hellmuth, Jr. was knock down to as little as 3,000 chips from his original 20,000 starting stack after he lost a big hand with KK. He took a prob bet ($5,000) with Eli Elezra at 11-1 that he couldn't bring his stack back up to 35,000. He ended the day with almost 28,000! Read about Hellmuth's Day 1.

It's almost October! Which means, more importantly, that it's almost Halloween. Dressing up, drinking, and running around like crazy is something my friends and I do pretty regularly, but to do it and not be looked down upon for one day is a beautiful thing.

I have gone as Phil Hellmuth the last four years and I plan on doing that for one of the days this year (pictured above). I want to go the other day as Daniel Day-Lewis from Gangs of New York. The scene where he has long pants, suspenders, an American flag draped around him, his huge handle bar 'stache, and a big black Lincoln-esque top hat. The only problem is that I have to lose around 15-85 pounds to pull the DDL look off. I'm pretty sure he's 6'2 - 130 lbs.

My thoughts on School

2008-09-28T15:42:00.006-04:00

I hate it.

I can't stand sitting in the classroom for an hour and a half four times a day/five times a week. It's ridiculous. I understand that college degrees can't just be easy to obtain/steal/earn or they wouldn't be as valuable. I still can't get over how boring most of these classes are though. The professors honestly think that the material they cover each day in class is the most exciting and entertaining information known to man. I find it funny and a little sad when you see that look in their eye when they give a lecture - the look of overconfidence - the look that says "I am a genius. Listen to how much I know about Sociology."

You know what? Maybe it's good that they love what they do. Wait, it is good that they love what they do. I'm still not taking back that I don't think they realize that most of the students don't give a shit about their subject. They (we) just want to get a good grade! And I also think that the professors are sometimes more immature than the kids in their classes. BUT, maybe I should just be happy for these people who want to teach the "future" about history, science, math, etc. However, this doesn't mean that I'm gonna start liking going to class. Never!

Maybe it's not just the chemical imbalance I have that causes me to lose focus (ADD). Maybe I hate going to class because I always feel like there's something else I should/could/would be doing that more fun/important. Obviously poker is a big activity that I could replace for class, but I mean simple (even more positive) activities like watching movies, running, going out for lunch with a friend, writing music, updating Dayton2Vegas.com. You get the point. I'm a big baby and I hate school. Take those two things away from this article.

I have 18.5 credits left until I graduate from the University of Dayton. Only 18.5 credits left! Can I finish them all by December? I don't know. I guess in a way, I'm not really in too big of a hurry. I just signed the lease to stay here (pictured below) for six more months so I can always finish up in May. Although my parents and family will point and laugh if I don't earn my diploma sometime soon.

Why did I just spend so much time ranting about school? O yea, because I hate it! I'll try to get through and finish. In fact, I guarantee I'll finish college and get my degree... but no guarantees on the date of completion. =)

RIP Paul Newman (1925-2008)

2008-09-27T12:33:00.002-04:00

Paul Newman

Revolutionary Road (trailer)

2008-09-26T14:38:00.003-04:00

Check out the new trailer for Revolutionary Road!

This is the fourth film from Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Jarhead). I can't wait for its release in December! =)

One review I couldn't find the source for wrote, "This is a whole new layer to DiCaprio that none of us have seen before. He brings a new, mature type of authentic subtlety to his craft. He doesn't resort to any big physical transformation. It's all internal. This is a new height for him, and easily the greatest acting of his career. A performance of great emotional intensity and depth that I can say without hesitation, will be remembered for generations to come."

Psychology of Gambling

2008-09-25T10:06:00.002-04:00

In my psychology class earlier today, we discussed gambling for a short bit. I can honestly say I was actually paying attention to the teacher. I think this was probably the first time all semester I can say that.

Anywho, long story short. He read off a cool line about just how many ways a person can start to examine gambling.

"Gambling can be viewed from many perspectives such as moral, mathematical, economical, social, psychological, cultural, and biological."

I did a little gambling last night and won a tournament for over $1,000 which was lovely. (FullTilt $69 SnG, 45 people).

Back in Black(out)!

2008-09-24T18:32:00.003-04:00

"I feel like Buckner walking back into Shae."

Wow. It's been a long time. I don't know where to begin. There's so much to talk about.

The Dark Knight
My family moving to D.C.
The Ultimate Bet scandal
My Birthday
The WSOP's November Nine
Gabe & Molly's wedding
My new apartment/life
...and so much more!

Today is Rachel and my three year anniversary! =)

I have power now in more ways than one and I'm excited for new things to come. Check back DAILY ( I promise) for entertaining stories from my life and more.

Congrats to John and Jen Tokarz on their wedding. It was an awesome time and I wish them the best of luck.

Rounders

2008-08-06T04:23:00.002-04:00

"I play for a living. It's like any other job. I don't gamble. I grind it out."